Martin Luther King Jr. was renowned for his achievements as a political activist in civil rights. But many people don’t know that just before he was assassinated, he strived to solve the problem of poverty in our nation. King wanted the government to eliminate poverty by providing every US citizen a guaranteed middle-class income and a job. He didn’t want to just alleviate poverty but to also raise the American society into the middle-class. King argued that the guaranteed income should be “pegged to the median of society” and it would, therefore, raise the standard of living for many people. He contended that his plan was feasible because he noted an estimate by John Kenneth Galbraith, an economist, that the government could create a guaranteed income with $20 billion dollars a year. As Mr. Galbraith said, King’s economic plan was “not much more than we will spend the next fiscal year to rescue freedom and democracy and religious liberty as these are defined by ‘experts’ in Vietnam.”

With that in mind, the third annual “Reclaim MLK: This Was Not The Dream!” march will be held on January 15th, 2018 between 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM, starting at the Safeway market at 1025 Alhambra Boulevard in Sacramento. This march is hosted by Black Lives Matter Sacramento, SURJ Sacramento, and the Gender Health Center. The goal of this MLK march is to bring unity and to rally the power of the people against racism, white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, homelessness, poverty, and fascism. The march will end at the Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J Street, where the Diversity Expo will be held from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM.

Black Lives Matter Sacramento, SURJ Sacramento, and the Gender Health Center collectively made a statement, “We will not be aligned with an event tainted in capitalism or sponsored by the very law enforcement entities that are killing us in the street, but with the people! Join us!”

In 1983, Ronald Reagan signed Martin Luther King Jr. Day into law. But it wasn’t until the new millennium when all 50 states officially celebrated it. The celebration of this holiday wasn’t just limited to the states; a few other countries, cities and provinces also celebrate it such as Toronto, Canada and a few Japanese cities.

However, when it comes to a local level, The MLK March presented by MLK365 celebrated its 32nd year of existence in Sacramento on Monday, January 21st, 2013. The march started 7:30 am in the morning at three locations; The Oak Park Community Center, Sacramento City College and Grant High School. The marchers starting from the Oak Park Community Center walked the full six miles, first passing by Sacramento City College and then continuing to the Convention Center. The marchers starting from Grant High School made their way down Del Paso Blvd to the convention center.

Towards the conclusion of the march all marchers received a very warm welcoming from the crowd gathered outside the convention center. The center was filled with tons of informational booths from The Black Parallel School Board, PG&E, and Sacramento Regional Transit to Local clothing and art vendors It was quite a view to see the crowd taking advantage of the many resources being offered. There was also tons of entertainment like singing and dancing. Few of the marchers were asked questions such as “what brought you out to the march” and “can you tell us about your experience” check out the quotes bellow so see their responses. Also check out the gallery bellow for photos of the event and the MlK365 website for more information.

Alexandria Jones

“My family bought me out to the march it was pretty good it was pretty different from last year”

Shaunte derrick

(The one in the middle)

Member of Delta sigma theta sorority Inc.

Elk Grove chapter.

“What brought me out to walk was I always like to serve my public and be in organizations that help with injustice being part of a sorority we would automatically come out and march for MLK and what he stood for. I loved the march its always wonderful to see people of all races come together and not only march for what he served for but also for the injustice”

Ray Newman

“This is my 3rd year marching I’ve marched with my basketball teams before, this time I came to the march I just wanted to bring my daughters and god daughters out. My experience during the march was good I walked from the Oak Park Community Center for the 1st time usually I come from Grant High School it seemed a little longer but it was fun.”

Fong Tran

“I think this is a great event where we pay homage to the folks that really struggled to give us the liberties we have today. Honestly it’s a good time to be out here with the community. For me I do the march with my friends every year its always a great time, even if its raining like it was 2 years ago. But it’s the dedication our city has our community has so I just love being out here with the folks